neildixonsmith.bsky.social
A guitarist/dad in Rogers Park, Chicago, interested in most things. History, panamericanism, freak folklorica, White Sox, Penn State. neildixonsmith.com
81 posts
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145 following
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And that bill did not include transit funding
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I’m talking about the transit bill, take it easy
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It was a spending bill, not a funding bill - mandating a name change, a police force, regional councils and other boondoggles, all unfunded, they’ve known about the financial cliff for 3 years, no leadership
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RTA manages a balance of interests between Metra (suburbs) and the city (CTA), the initial reform bill that failed tried to break that up so the city could control CTA, it failed because the suburban reps wouldn't go for that (and never would), they changed it just a name change and it failed too
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Right, they distribute money, each agency wants all of it and they mediate who gets what
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RTA exists to mediate between the city and suburbs
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the reform bill included stuff like mandating a name change for the RTA ($5mil at least), plus a transit police force, regional councils (ie patronage jobs), and more, all unfounded, the crux was more city control so the suburbs killed it
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“Reform” is not funding - the reform bill is what failed, there has been no funding bill
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It’s too late by statute, when money runs out they have to cut services and that doesn’t just reverse itself, it’s happened before, wheels are already in motion
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Republicans want to kill all transit, so we can buy more cars or have driverless taxis, suburban/downstate reps won’t approve $ to the city for anything, and there are plenty of Dem nincompoops and misguided transit activists, I’m not optimistic, and it’s already kinda too late
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We can’t report good news!
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It’s already too late, they hit the financial wall in a couple weeks and service cuts will start, it takes years to reverse that even if funding comes this year which is very unlikely
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This is 100% about COVID, 2 years of no riders and the operations bill is due, ridership has largely returned and crime is down, blaming the services is cheap
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“They are ‘out’ until September
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The state legislature has known about the transit financial cliff for three years, they introduced a 900 page spending bill with 12 hours before session ended for summer and it failed, service cuts are being planned and they are fine until September and the governor did nothing
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Hilarious
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Correct, and we had a complete failure of the IL legislature to pass a bill and the governor’s team sat it out - if he’s such a strong governor he could have helped make something happen, all he’s done is blame transit workers
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Cool, FUND CHICAGO TRANSIT
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FUND TRANSIT, this isn’t going to be cool when lines are cut and rates hike and JB just lets it happen
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@tomtomorrow.bsky.social
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CANNOT WAIT
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They are literally the last band to tell the "oh yeah, we used to do 5 sets a night 7 nights a week" story, weeks later sound systems were put in every bar and no band ever got to do this again
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Popeslayer
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No schedule conflicts tonight
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Got my copy of Grandin this weekend, can’t wait to tear in. It is time for Panamericanism.
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Oh come now: youtu.be/51B55OQysj8?...
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I would just mail cash to Matador
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POPESLAYER
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A lot of maneuvering to see who squeezes out the last made buck
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And no video captures early 80s decadence quite like this:
youtu.be/Cn8APTMyKsg?...
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This is a huge issue in Chicago right now, post-COVID ridership is back but the operations bill on two years with no riders is due, they want to kill transit for driverless ubers
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They’re making the White Sox look respectable
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Me! Been here 26 years, last 8 up in Rogers Park, northernest neighborhood on the lake
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He narrates all the books I read now
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The biggest brewing issue in Illinois is state funding for Chicagoland mass transit, he's been trying to punt but the bill is up in June. Shapiro failed in PA and now Philly transit is fucked...will he let Chicago down on the way to a prez run?
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His essay on his Bezos space trip was pretty great